Ornella Muti

Francesca Romana Rivelli (born 9 March 1955), professionally known as Ornella Muti, is an Italian actress.

Among the best-known Italian actresses, in her career, she has worked across various genres, working alongside Italian directors such as Damiano Damiani, Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Marco Ferreri, Carlo Verdone, Ettore Scola, Francesca Archibugi, Paolo Virzì, Umberto Lenzi, Francesco Nuti and many others. Outside of Italy, she is best known for her role as Princess Aura in the science fiction cult film Flash Gordon (1980).

Career

Muti was born in Rome to a Neapolitan journalist father and Ilse Renate Krause, a Russian Baltic German sculptor from Estonia. Her maternal grandparents emigrated from Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) to Estonia.

Muti modeled as a teenager and made her film debut in the 1970 film La moglie più bella (The Most Beautiful Wife) at the age of fourteen. In the early seventies, thanks to the great success of the film, she starred in numerous comedies, mainly ascribed to the erotic genre. In 1974, she played in the Mario Monicelli Come Home and Meet My Wife, which became a huge success and brought her wide popularity. During the 1970s and 1980s she worked with the most popular Italian actors as Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Carlo Verdone, Renato Pozzetto, Paolo Villaggio, Francesco Nuti, Giancarlo Giannini in successful comedies as Nobody's Perfect, Bonnie and Clyde Italian Style, Rich and Poor, All the Fault of Paradise, Me and My Sister, Tonight at Alice's, and also dramatic movies as The Last Woman, The Bishop's Bedroom, Nest of Vipers, Break Up, Tales of Ordinary Madness and The Future Is Woman.